Chrono Cross Director Explains Why There are Over 40 Playable Characters

As part of a new Square Enix official Chrono Cross interview video about the remaster, Director Masato Kato discussed the number of playable characters available in the title. Over the course of the adventure, people can eventually recruit 45 different people. However, which decisions you make do limit which characters can join. When discussing it, he noted it was about adding characters he wanted to see “on a whim.” He also “apologized” to Funguy for how that party member was handled.

Here’s Kato’s exact statement regarding the number of playable characters in Chrono Cross.

Let me tell you, originally we wanted to make every character in the village playable. Unsurprisingly, this idea was rejected. Looking at it with a cool head, even I could see it was impossible. I gave up on that very rapidly.

Then, it was simply a matter of “I want a character like this and like that!” I kept on adding whatever I wanted on a whim, and we ended up with that greatly diverse cast of characters.

When I look at the character lineup now, if someone was to ask me, “Did you really need Funguy?” Maybe I would say he might not be necessary.

Kato also went on to talk more about Funguy after mentioning him. As a reminder, he’s the playable character who turned into a mushroom after eating an unusual one.

I feel sorry for what I did to Funguy. I should’ve given it more thought. I should’ve fleshed him out more if I wanted to include him. He ended up being called an unwanted character. I feel bad about that.

You can watch the full interview below. It also talked about how Radical Dreamers ended up being part of the remaster.

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.